The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-10-19
Reply to Senator Georges Letter
on the State University.


EDITOR CLARIoN-I have read the
letter of Senator George, published in
your issue of the 9TH inst, in regard to
the Financial Status of the University,
with good deal of care. 1t requires
an answer, and as | am the only one of
the original Trustees who is now con-
nected with it, | have undertaken a
reply.
1t is a significant fact, that the docu-
ment, ample as it is on other points, con-
tains not a single reference to its char
ter. That instrument contains the fol-
lowing provision:
"The said Board of Trustees shall
have full power and entire control over
the funds belonging to the University
OF Mississippi, or the Seminary Fund"
February, 1914.
Four years previously, an Act directed
"that all sums of money belonging or
hereafter accruing to the Seminary
Fund, are hereby appropriated for the
use and benefit of the University of
the State of Mississippi. Hut. Code,
221
These certainly disposes of the Sen
ator's point as to the loss of the funds
by the failure of the Planters Bank,
without fault of the State. If there
was ever anything in it, it was by these
enactments, passed after the failure of
bank, clearly waived by the Legislature,
as it had the undoubted right to do. The
State was a large stakeholder in the
bank, and the Legislature might have
had in mind the legal aphorism that
when trustee mingles the trust funds
with his own, or places them in a bust
ness in which he has an interest, his liza
bility to make good any loss is increas-
ed, even if it is not absolutely and ire
versibly fixed. Shortly after their or.
ganization, the Board of Trustees APP
pointed their Treasurer, Thomas H.
Williams, of Pontotoc, their agent to ex-
anime into the funds belonging to the
University and make report of the
amount. In the broad limits of the
State no man of higher intelligence or
purer integrity could have been found.
Once a member of the United States
Senate, he enjoyed in full measure the
confidence and esteem of the whole peo-
pie. He performed the duty assigned
to him, and reported the amount of the
FUND, as well as | remember, to be be-
tween seven and eight hundred thousand
dollars. | have made enquiry for it, at
the University, but could hear nothing
of it. When the report went before the
Legislature, it repealed, as it had re-
served the right to do, the provisions of
the charter, which gave to the Trustees
the control of the fund, and thus re-
sumed its management, though they
had previously declared it belonged to
the University. 1t would have been
a. 20 o,
one to confer with Col. Williams on the
subject of his report, and they might
not improbably have reached a conclu-
sion that would have been satisfactory
to all.
The Senator does not question the
original liability of the State, but con-
tends that the failure of the Planters
Bank exempted it from responsibility
and, moreover, that the State has paid
to the University more than the amount
of the fund.
l have already replied to the first
of these assumptions. l have not access
to the books and papers on which he re-
lies to support the second, and cannot,
therefore, scrutinize his calculations or
accept his conclusions.
The Senator says, in reference to Mr..
Thompson's report, "that he had fallen
under two decisions which unbalanced
his strong and vigorous intellect" The
whole career of Mr.. Thompson goes to
show that he was one of the clearest
thinkers of the age, and one of the least
liable to fall under any delusion.
The Act of 1880, which is well en-
titled to be a final settlement of the |
trouble, is in marked accord with this
delusive report of his, and shows that if |
he was then temporarily mad, there was
method in his madness.
This matter of the Seminary Fund |
has been the subject of discussion and |
dispute for more than forty years, and |
for all that time it has been taken for |
granted, that something-some amount |
was due to the University. 1t is to |
the interest of the State and of the PEG.
pie, as we'll as to the institution, that /
there should be an end to controversy
Ne mocete qUieta-do not disturb mat
tiers that are at rest-was the cardi-
nal m kim of Sir Robert Walpole, one
of the most dexterous, if not of the
wisest ministers that England ever had.
The act of 1880, passed with the avow-
ed purpose of ascertaining the indebted
ness of the State on account of the
Seminary Fund, acknowledged and de-
clared the amount to be $544 ,061. %, "
and provided for the payment of the in
terest ON that sum to the University an
nually in quarterly installnents.
As one of the Trustees | hereby de-
clare my acquescence in this enactment,
and my acceptance of it, as the final adj
ustment of the long contention. l
hope my co-trustees will concur.
ALEX. M. CLAYTON.